My husband just recently got a DBA with a separate EIN. Applied for the DBA in November 2022, got EIN December 21, 2022.
Understood.
We've only had expenses for starting the DBA, business cards, flyers, etc. Do we need to file the business with our personal tax return or do we file separately them?
First, I'm making a few assumptions. The business has one owner, and only one owner. Doesn't matter which spouse it is and it doesn't matter that you're filing a joint return. With only one owner, the business income/expenses is reported on SCH C as a part of your personal 1040 tax return. Again, it does not matter if that 1040 return is a joint return. (I would expect it to be)
First year having to add something like this and want to make sure I'm doing it right? We do not have any sales.
For starters, were you official "open for business" on or before Dec 31 of the tax year? If you were not, then you have absolutely nothing what-so-ever to report about the business on your 2022 tax return.
It's perfectly possible and very feasible that you have "start-up expenses" that you paid in 2022. If you were not "open for business" in 2022, then those start-up expenses are not deductible on your 2022 tax return. Instead, they would be deductible in the first year you "are" open for business. So if that's 2023, start-up expenses would be claimed on your 2023 tax return that gets completed next year.
Start-up expenses are deductible in the first year the business is "open for business", and it does not matter in what year those start-up expenses were incurred either. It's not at all uncommon for some businesses to incur such expenses for several years before they are officially "open for business".
Now, if you were "in fact" open for business in 2022, then the fact the business produced no income is irrelevant. You still report the income/expenses. However, since you have no business income from which to deduct your businses expenses, they just get "carried over" to the next year where you can deduct them; provided of course the business has the income to actually deduct them from.
